Macbook Pro Retina Alternatives

Last week Apple released the all new Macbook Pro Retina, with a gorgeous new screen the latest generation of Intel processors via Ivy Bridge, and a flash drive. Gone are Ethernet ports, Firewire, and DVD Drive. The machine does look pretty sleek. But with the lack of ports and higher entry price of $2199.00 US, this got me thinking what other alternates are there to the new Macbook Pro Retina?

Well first of there is the obvious, a Macbook Pro without Retina. You still get all the great features from Intel Ivy Bridge, and the new Nividia GT650M for graphics. But instead of a Retina display, you will have to make due with the standard screen and a physical hard drive. This option alone saves you few hundred dollars plus gives you back the Ethernet port, Firewire, and DVD drive. If you really want to have a flash drive you could always remove the optical drive, and install one yourself. Although the price then quickly jumps to something very similar of the Macbook Pro Retina.

Asus G75

Asus has been making wonderful PC products for some time. I even own one of their laptops, but recently Asus refreshed their gaming laptops to incredible specs that could even run Adobe CS6 . The Asus G75 can be configured with some impressive features that can compete with the Macbook Pro Retina.

3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3610QM 2.3GHz processor

16GB DDR3 memory

750GB HDD + 256 SSD

17.3″ Full HD Display 1920 x 1080

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M

Blu Ray Writer

HDMI

Mini Display Port

4 X USB 3.0

VGA

As you can see this is a well featured laptop and at a starting price at about $1400 you can see this is indeed a very powerful machine.

AlienWare M17X

Alienware also manufactures some of the most powerful laptops. Although most of these behemoths are actually quiet heavy, and would not be ideal for lugging around.

The Alienware M17x also has an attractive staring price of $1499.00, although it’s very easy to send that sky rocketing to $4000.00 fully configured. The Alienware M17X does pack a ton of features including Nividia’s latest generation GTX 680M based on Kelpar technology. This could prove to be a very impressive Cuda card, and would most likely out perform put the Macbook Pro Retina ‘s Nividia GT 650M.

3rd Generation Intel i7 Processor

Up to 32 GB of Ram 1600MHZ

Dual HDD with SSD and Raid Configurations

2BG Nivdia GTX 680M GPU

Alienware definitely makes once of the most powerful laptops on the market, with this new Nividia GTX 680M GPU, powering the graphics I would love to see this in Action, maybe running Adobe CS6 with the Mercury playback Engine.

Samsung Series 9

If the Alienware is to big and bulky and you want something sleek , then take a look at the Samsung Series 9 laptop. It comes in considerably cheaper at $1200 , but still packs some great features to be had. I will actually be reviewing this laptop next week, so stay tuned for that review.

128GB SSD

2 USB 3.0

Mini HDMI

4GB of RAM

These are some of my alternates to the Macbook Pro Retina. They all have their pros and cons to consider when upgrading your current hardware. I really think that SSD and flash drives really help make these laptops faster and perform better. Opening multiple programs is very impressive to see. What are your plans? Are you going to purchase a new Macbook Pro Retina or are you going with an alternative?

Don’t Forget next week I will have the review of the latest Samsung Series 9 laptop. So stay tuned…